Connect Yourself – Go Ethereum: Geth

Archive node Retains all historical data

An archive node synchronizes the blockchain by downloading the full chain from the genesis block to the current head block, executing all the transactions contained within. As the node crunches through the transactions, all past historical state is stored on disk, and can be queried for each and every block.

Initial processing required to execute all transactions may require non-negligible time and disk capacity required to store all past state may be non-insignificant. High end machines with SSD storage, modern CPUs and 8GB+ RAM are recommended.

Full node Retains recent data only

A full node synchronizes the blockchain by downloading the full chain from the genesis block to the current head block, but does not execute the transactions. Instead, it downloads all the transactions receipts along with the entire recent state. As the node downloads the recent state directly, historical data can only be queried from that block onward.

Initial processing required to synchronize is more bandwidth intensive, but is light on the CPU and has significantly reduced disk requirements. Mid range machines with HDD storage, decent CPUs and 4GB+ RAM should be enough.

Light node Retrieves data on demand

A light node synchronizes the blockchain by downloading and verifying only the chain of headers from the genesis block to the current head, without executing any transactions or retrieving any associated state. As no state is available locally, any interaction with the blockchain relies on on-demand data retrievals from remote nodes.

Initial processing required to synchronize is light, as it only verifies the validity of the headers; similarly required disk capacity is small, tallying around 500 bytes per header. Low end machines with arbitrary storage, weak CPUs and 512MB+ RAM should cope well.

Embedded node Conserves memory vs. speed

An embedded node is a variation of the light node with configuration parameters tuned towards low memory footprint. As such, it may sacrifice processing and disk IO performance to conserve memory. It should be considered an experimental direction for now without hard guarantees or bounds on the resources used.

Initial processing required to synchronize is light, as it only verifies the validity of the headers; similarly required disk capacity is small, tallying around 500 bytes per header. Embedded machines with arbitrary storage, low power CPUs and 128MB+ RAM may work.

Connect Yourself – Go Ethereum: Wallet & Mist

Desktop wallet Interacts with accounts and contracts

The Ethereum Wallet is an Electron based desktop application to manage your Ethereum accounts and funds. Beside the usual account life-cycle operations you would expect to perform, the wallet also provides a means to send transactions from your accounts and to interact with smart contracts deployed on the network.

Under the hood the wallet is backed by a go-ethereum full node, meaning that a mid range machine is assumed. Similarly, synchronization is based on fast-sync, which will download all blockchain data from the network and make it available to the wallet. Light nodes cannot currently fully back the wallet, but it's a target actively pursued.

To connect with the Ethereum Wallet, you'll need to initialize your private network first via Geth as the wallet does not currently support calling Geth directly. To initialize your local chain, download verifiable_testnet.json and run:

Mist browser Interacts with third party DApps

The Mist browser is an Electron based desktop application to load and interact with Ethereum enabled third party web DApps. Beside all the functionality provided by the Ethereum Wallet, Mist is an extended web-browser where loaded pages have access to the Ethereum network via a web3.js provider, and may also interact with users' own accounts (given proper authorization and confirmation of course).

Under the hood the browser is backed by a go-ethereum full node, meaning that a mid range machine is assumed. Similarly, synchronization is based on fast-sync, which will download all blockchain data from the network and make it available to the wallet. Light nodes cannot currently fully back the wallet, but it's a target actively pursued.

To connect with the Mist browser, you'll need to initialize your private network first via Geth as Mist does not currently support calling Geth directly. To initialize your local chain, download verifiable_testnet.json and run:

Connect Yourself – Go Ethereum: Android & iOS

Android devices Accesses Ethereum via Java

Starting with the 1.5 release of go-ethereum, we've transitioned away from shipping only full blown Ethereum clients and started focusing on releasing the code as reusable packages initially for Go projects, then later for Java based Android projects too. Mobile support is still evolving, hence is bound to change often and hard, but the Ethereum network can nonetheless be accessed from Android too.

Under the hood the Android library is backed by a go-ethereum light node, meaning that given a not-too-old Android device, you should be able to join the network without significant issues. Certain functionality is not yet available and rough edges are bound to appear here and there, please report issues if you find any.

The stable Android archives are distributed via Maven Central, and the develop snapshots via the Sonatype repositories. Before proceeding, please ensure you have a recent version configured in your Android project. You can find details in Mobile: Introduction – Android archive.

Before connecting to the Ethereum network, download the verifiable_testnet.json genesis json file and either store it in your Android project as a resource file you can access, or save it as a string in a variable. You're going to need to to initialize your client.

Inside your Java code you can now import the geth archive and connect to Ethereum:

iOS devices Accesses Ethereum via ObjC/Swift

Starting with the 1.5 release of go-ethereum, we've transitioned away from shipping only full blown Ethereum clients and started focusing on releasing the code as reusable packages initially for Go projects, then later for ObjC/Swift based iOS projects too. Mobile support is still evolving, hence is bound to change often and hard, but the Ethereum network can nonetheless be accessed from iOS too.

Under the hood the iOS library is backed by a go-ethereum light node, meaning that given a not-too-old Apple device, you should be able to join the network without significant issues. Certain functionality is not yet available and rough edges are bound to appear here and there, please report issues if you find any.

Both stable and develop builds of the iOS framework are available via CocoaPods. Before proceeding, please ensure you have a recent version configured in your iOS project. You can find details in Mobile: Introduction – iOS framework.

Before connecting to the Ethereum network, download the verifiable_testnet.json genesis json file and either store it in your iOS project as a resource file you can access, or save it as a string in a variable. You're going to need to to initialize your client.

Inside your Swift code you can now import the geth framework and connect to Ethereum (ObjC should be analogous):

Puppeth – Your Ethereum private network manager

Puppeth is a tool to aid you in creating a new Ethereum network down to the genesis block, bootnodes, signers, ethstats server, crypto faucet, wallet browsers, block explorer, dashboard and more; without the hassle that it would normally entail to manually configure all these services one by one.

Puppeth uses ssh to dial in to remote servers, and builds its network components out of docker containers using docker-compose. The user is guided through the process via a command line wizard that does the heavy lifting and topology configuration automatically behind the scenes.

Puppeth is distributed as part of the Geth & Tools bundles, but can also be installed separately via: